Lilone1776 - Yeah, it's kind of sad that a world like the one portrayed in TWD creates mistrust between human beings.
crystal2817 - Thanks for the review!
Axelrocks - Aw, your reviews are always so optimistic and kind. It's reviewers like you who keep me updating so quickly. Thanks ever so!
Surplus Imagination - Ah, thanks for pointing that inconsistency out. I went back and fixed it so that it's not so hard for others to comprehend! Thanks for the review! ^_^
Brazen Hussy - Haha, that must be it! (Love that man!)
KrisAnthemum221 - Yeah, some is better than none, amirite?
Satory - Gah, your reviews are always fascinating! I love to hear about things like that. I kind of think it's amazing that most of the Acadien I've come across is actually spelled phonetically. Like Couyon versus Coullion (I believe is the spelling, forgive my crappy French skills). Anyways, don't worry about your Frenglish, I think your reviews are just lovely regardless. Thanks for taking the time!
Selbyzipper - Haha, Alan? Is that his name? (I'm going to keep it as Max for the purpose of humour later on...) Thanks for pointing that out! Also, you asked for Caryl, this chapter delivers...I hope it pleases. Sorry about the slow going Caryl build up...I may have to change my genre to something other than romance as the plot sort of took over from the pairing...ack...
carylfan - Aw, thanks a bunch for the review! I honestly appreciate the support.
ldyjaydin - To be honest, I'm excited to see what happens as well. ^_^
MollyMayhem84 - Mah, your review made a shaky day one hundred times better. Thanks so much for your kind words. I don't actually write for a living, it's a passionate hobby of mine though. Daffy is probably the best bromance shipper name ever...I'm going to use the hell out of that.
Sira1 - Thank you so much. You're too kind. I really mean it when I say reviews like yours keep me updating so fast. I get energized when people say kind things and it causes me to write like a fiend.
I'm honestly floored by you kids and your kind reviews. I want to thank you all for them and as a treat, I offer this chapter to you. Finally! Enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-One: Un P'tit Bec
**Carol**
They had just finished cleaning up after the evening meal when Annie came racing into the kitchen all smiles and bounces.
"They're back! They're back!" She exclaimed, circling the nuns one by one, before skipping out again.
Glancing over at Sister Mary Agnes, she found the woman smiling gently and nudging her way between Carol and the sink.
"I'll take over, Carol. Why don't you go and greet them?"
Drying her hands, she smiled and thanked the woman, hurrying out of the kitchen and down the long corridor of the main dorms.
She met up with Beth and Herschel, who had been spending their days in the Father's rectory as far from Merle in the infirmary as they could get, while the priest joined them from said infirmary, the one place everyone but him seemed to avoid.
Thankfully, Carol noticed Merle wasn't present, she wasn't sure how the rest of the group might greet him.
Sister Mary Monica opened the front gate, allowing Daryl to drive in on his brother's chopper, heading up a caravan of two other vehicles.
Her hope fell a little when she realized that Rick and Maggie weren't among those who exited the vehicles. But she did notice a small dog hop out of the truck behind the Cajun and quirked a brow at it as it loped along behind the man.
Carol stooped and gave Carl a hug, even though lately the boy cringed from them. She smiled at the others, but all the while her eyes were on Daryl.
He looked like he did in those long hours after Sophia was discovered in the barn. He looked helpless and lost, masking it with a sneer.
Wrapping her arms around Glenn, Carol touched his face gently. She could see pain in his eyes over the absence of Maggie. "Daryl will find them," she assured him.
He shrugged. "Maybe."
Sensing everyone was tired and just wanted to be alone, she motioned the three remaining members of Tyreese's group towards the dorms where Mother Superior Philomena was waiting to offer them food and shelter.
They were all halfway across the lawns, arms full of things from the Greene farm, when Merle made his appearance, sauntering up from the infirmary.
"Well, look what we have here," he greeted with that smarmy grin of his. "Where's that pretty girl of yours, Chinaman?"
Carol didn't have any time to locate one of the men, as Glenn curled his hands into fists and launched himself at Merle, growling, "you son of a bitch!"
Pandemonium broke out as everyone rushed to prevent a death match fight on the lawns of the convent, coming up behind Merle, Daryl and the Lieutenant tried to restrain him, but the rough man clocked the Lieutenant on the jaw with his metal stump device and knocked him off.
"He did this to us!" Glenn argued, held back by Tyreese and the other guy. "We wouldn't be in this mess if he didn't grab Maggie and me in town! It's his fucking group that did this to us!"
Carol watched the Lieutenant spit out a mouthful of blood, before climbing to his feet.
Daryl, practically dangling off his brother's back in an effort to slow the man down, looked for the first time since she had known him, like he had no idea what to do.
"What's wrong, Glenn? Don't you like reunions?!" Merle shouted back at the Korean-American. "And here I thought we made up at Woodbury."
The Mother Superior joined them from the dorms, moving to stand herself between the two men, hoping to shield them from fighting by her presence.
Merle, in an effort to get at Glenn who was still yelling and screaming at him, took a violent step to go around the woman, but ended up knocking her onto her face on the lawns.
Carol took a step back from the entire scene, as the Cajun – who noticed the nun being knocked down – took three long strides towards Merle.
He grabbed Merle's good arm and twisted it back, bringing the wrist up to Merle's shoulder blade. Kicking the backs of Merle's knees, brought the man to a kneeling position, then placing a knee against the small of the man's spine, the Lieutenant pushed Merle down and continued to kneel on him, keeping him pinned.
Daryl did what he could, keeping Merle's other arm from flailing at the soldier keeping him in control.
"Here's the thing, couyon," the Lieutenant spat, more blood spilling from his mouth, running over his chin. "Tuat t'en grosse bueche.You can be an asshole all you want, it's a free world. But you have to learn some basic manners, capon. One," the man was bumped viciously as Merle bucked under him. Tightening his grip on the arm, the Cajun leaned in close to Merle's ear, his right hand pushing Merle's face into the ground. "One, you treat guests nicely while you're on my grounds. Two, you knock my girls around like that again and I'll cut your fucking head off, yeah?"
"Get off me you fucking coonass bitch!" Merle snarled.
"I think I'm going to plant here until you cool down, Merle." The Lieutenant replied. "Either that or I knock you the fuck out so we can have some peace for a while, your choice."
"Come on, Merle," Daryl said. "Let's go to the infirmary."
From beneath the Cajun, the older Dixon growled, struggling to push the man off him.
Carol could see the white of the soldier's knuckles as he refused to let the man go for a moment, before he cautiously released Merle and slipped off his back.
Caught by Tyreese and the other guy, Glenn huffed angrily, but said nothing as Merle stood up.
"Come on," Daryl insisted again.
His older brother shoved him hard. "Get the fuck away from me!"
Everyone watched Merle storm off, back towards the infirmary.
"You shouldn't have brought us here," Glenn growled at Daryl. "You shouldn't have brought us anywhere near him. The man's unstable."
Daryl glared at the Asian, before he stormed off too, heading for the garden shed where he had taken to stashing his stuff among the Cajun's.
Quietly eyeing the others as they milled about for a moment, Carol sighed. "Come on," she said softly. "Let's get these things put away."
..-~-..
..-~-..
After they had stored the things from the Greene farm and Carol managed to talk Glenn out of going back to the prison rather than staying at the convent, she took up two plates of cold dinner and headed out for the garden shed to give them to the men staying there.
Inside she found Daryl angrily whittling new bolts for his crossbow, sitting on the hood of an old riding lawnmower, the Cajun lounging on an old cot, reading a well thumbed through copy of National Geographic.
Both men looked up when she entered.
"I thought you could use something to eat," she said softly.
The Lieutenant took the plate from her with a quiet 'thanks' and Daryl nodded as she set it down beside him.
Folding her arms, Carol stood back from the two, eyeing Daryl.
He looked pissed, but she could also see something else flickering under the surface. Hurt, maybe, hesitation, something that he usually didn't wear on his face. She wasn't sure, but it was something that reminded her of his expression that night after they lost the farm.
"Are you going to be alright?" She asked, addressing the youngest Dixon.
He sliced a strip of bark off the branch he was working on angrily. "Peachy."
"I don't think you are." She stated.
On the cot, the Cajun paused, spoon of stew halfway to his mouth, graceful dark brows over grey eyes perched high on his forehead. "Seems like a tricycle situation…" he muttered, pushing to his feet. "I'm going to walk off the calories while I eat." He said, moving past Carol with a wink.
She reached out a hand to touch his arm on the way by as a silent thanks.
Carol waited for a moment, watching Daryl as he attacked the branch. Somehow she didn't think that one was going to be much use as a bolt.
"Glenn tells me Rick and Maggie went back for you." She said after a moment.
"So?" He growled.
"So, what do you think's going on?"
"Dumb ass probably got himself killed going back," Daryl snarled. "Simple as that."
"You don't really think that, do you?" Moving towards him, Carol took a seat behind the wheel of the lawnmower, leaning against the steering wheel calmly.
Daryl was quiet, knife working on the branch with a little less force.
"I didn't ask him to go back," Daryl said. "He should know I can take care of myself."
"He went back for you, because that's what friends do, Daryl."
Daryl's wince-like facial tic reared up and he sniffed calmly. "Yeah, well, we ain't friends."
"Of course you are. And I know that in the morning you'll go back for him." She got out of the seat and hopped up beside him on the hood.
"He's probably dead already," Daryl replied darkly.
"You don't know that," she said. "And until you do, you're going to keep looking for them, until you find them. That's what you do."
"Yeah," he muttered, tossing the branch away. "That's all I'm good for."
Suddenly Carol didn't care if she freaked him out and chased him off, she couldn't take him thinking he was only good for one thing. She wrapped her arms loosely around his waist and leaned against him.
Daryl tensed. Every muscle stiffened. His jaw twitched, but he remained passive, sitting beside her.
Carol studied his face for a sign that she overstepped his very clear personal boundaries, but so far all he did was study the wall before them, hands fiddling with the knife. She could feel his hard muscles under her arms relax after a long, silent moment and smiled a little.
"I'll find him," he said softly, still eyeing the wall.
Cautiously, he glanced over at her, his nose nearly bumping hers as he turned his head a little.
Carol beamed at him. "I know you will."
His eyes had never been bluer to her, then the moment when he began to move and shift under her embrace, putting the knife down at his far side.
Thinking he was finally pulling away, Carol loosened her grip on him and began to lean away, only to find his arm snaking around her waist quickly, drawing her back against him.
He flinched again and looked at the wall, arm tight around her waist, hand hot against her hip.
Feeling that was a go-ahead, she tightened her arms again and leaned against him with a contented little smile. She had never been this close to him – at least not while completely aware of the feeling of being against him – and she liked it. He was all hard angles and masculine scent. It comforted her.
Daryl was much more use to her than just some guy who tracked and hunted. He was the rock she clung to among the raging waters of an uncertain world.
She remembered that feeling of relief, that absolute euphoria when she opened her eyes that day he found her in that solitary confinement cell. It wasn't just relief that she had been found, but that he survived the walkers, that he was the one who found her.
She wanted him to know how much she needed him in her life.
How odd was it that the youngest Dixon brother, the man who once scared her when the Dixon's first showed up at the quarry, was the one man who she trusted absolutely and without question?
Appearances were indeed misleading, weren't they?
The fingers of his hand twitched against her hip and she knew he was nervously fidgeting and not just adjusting them.
Daryl was a ball of energy, he couldn't sit still long and she knew he was getting restless already.
Their eyes met and Carol smiled sheepishly. She was a grown woman, but Daryl made her feel like a teenaged girl again. Maybe it was his own awkward nature when it came to intimacy that caused her to feel awkward as well.
Carefully his other arm crossed over her lap, hand tucking under her thigh. He dragged her even closer to him, leaving his hand under her leg.
Now closer to him than ever, she bumped her head under his chin and laid her cheek against his chest.
He smelled of sweat and the woods, but it wasn't in anyway offensive to her. She'd take this kind of intimacy with him if he smelled of the death and decay of walkers, if it meant she got a chance to show him how she felt without having to say anything.
Daryl was more of an actions-speak-louder-than-words type anyways.
"What do I do about Merle?" He asked suddenly, his gruff voice rumbling in his chest under her ear.
Carol toyed with a button on his shirt. "That's not my decision to make."
He was quiet again.
"Maybe you could talk to him first, before you make any decisions," she suggested after a moment. "He is your brother, after all."
"I've always had to clean up his messes," Daryl snarled.
"Doesn't mean you love him any less."
"Don't tell me who I love and don't love, woman," he said gruffly, tone half teasing.
Carol buried a laugh into his chest.
She could have sworn he nuzzled her a little with his chin.
After the longest time, they pulled away from each other.
Daryl looked ten times calmer than he had before she came along. "Okay," he said. "I'll go talk with Merle."
"And I mean talk to him, no fighting, okay?" She urged with a small grin.
"Sometimes with Merle, it's like you have to slap him around a few times before his ears start working," he replied.
"Well, try to behave yourself, at least." She returned, hopping down from the hood of the lawnmower, dusting her ass off idly. "Then talk with Glenn, he thinks you're siding with Merle."
"I ain't siding with no one right now."
"He doesn't know that."
Sliding off the mower, Daryl nodded. "Fine."
The Cajun Dialect
Un p'tit bec – A kiss or embrace
Tuat t'en grosse bueche – You have a big mouth. When a Cajun says this, it basically means 'shut up'.
Added Bonus - The Merle Dialect
Coonass - A derogatory term for a person of Cajun descent.